Last year, I wrote a column around the time of the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s 100th anniversary on why we would instead focus on our 150th in 2016. I explained that many newspapers — when two or more merge to form one — trace their anniversary dates to the original publication.

Exactly 150 years ago today, in 1866, the Green Bay Gazette was formed and started publishing a weekly newspaper. The Green Bay Gazette was not Green Bay’s first newspaper; the Green Bay Intelligencer started in 1833.

More than 30 newspapers came and went over the years, some with interesting names such as the Green Bay Phoenix, the Regulator and the Green Bay Spectator. There was even one called the Republican and one called the Democrat, and until 11 years ago Green Bay had two newspapers, including the Green Bay News-Chronicle.

Despite all that have come and gone, the Green Bay Gazette, originally owned by George Ginty and Dwight Follett and run by Follett, stood the test of time. The newspaper changed hands a few times until encountering a strong competitor in the Green Bay Free-Press. In 1915, Victor Minahan of the Free-Press made a deal with N.C. Pickard to merge the two to create what is now known as the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

So rather than celebrate 100 years of the Press-Gazette last year, we plan to celebrate 150 years of the Gazette this year. Like that one relative we all have who has gone to celebrating a birthday week rather than just the day, we plan to celebrate throughout the year.

We are working on plans for the celebration, some of which will include a Night at the Museum with the Neville Museum (which turned 100 last year) and some fun commemorative editions. We will have more on our history, including the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s role in helping form the Green Bay Packers.

As much as our celebration will look back, we also will continue to look forward. Not many businesses have stood the test of time to be around 150 years. Newspaper naysayers love to predict the end of our industry. But when you’ve been around 150 years and are still going strong, with arguably more readership than ever because of our digital reach, you come to focus on keeping things going for another 150 years.

To our tens of thousands of longtime loyal subscribers, I want to say thank you and we will be looking for ways to celebrate with you too in 2016.

My thanks to former Press-Gazette staffer Jeff Ash, who provided much of the historical background.

Scott Johnson is president and publisher of the Green Bay Press-Gazette.